I wrote in reply to k00b about my issues with sidechains specifically as it applies to thinking of it as a scaling solution: https://stacker.news/items/226879

Not mentioned in that comment are things like "Hey, all the limitations of our decentralized timestamp server are going to apply to these side decentralized timestamp servers too"

For example
"Hey, the reason we have a small blocksize is going to apply to sidechains too"

"Hey, the reason we have a high block time is going to apply to these sidechains too"

And remember, this is constrained to only talk about sidechains for scaling and nothing else. Fuck all the nonmonetary use cases. Take them out of the conversation, they're a distraction and off topic to the resolution. What's the resolution?

Resolved: "How do we scale Bitcoin?"

That is the topic. I spend so much time dedicated to talking about how I want to constrain the discussion to just that and only that, because I know people are stubborn and I kinda feel scaling isn't the real reason behind this suggestion, so lets constrain the topic to only be about scaling to really put to the fire how much about scaling this push for sidechains really is.

Don't plan it. I mean do not make a rigorous plan about where to go, what items to take with you, how long you gonna stay.

Do this, in stages:

1. Stage ONE - accommodation

• take short hiking trips, with easy routes / trails
• put in your backpack anything you think you will use, eat, wear
• this short stage is to see how much you can carry, resist walking with all the weight, what you really gonna use.
• take notes about almost anything you do: how much time you walk, when did you start and when did you stop walking, how much time you can do x distance etc. Enough to see your OWN possibilities and how far you can go.
• take notes about items that you wish you had but you didn't take them.
• accommodate with your shoes. Shoes are VERY IMPORTANT. With your foot in a good condition, your trip will be over after 1-2 days. Always have a pair of reserve shoes, light shoes. Test your shoes in different occasions, see how are resisting.

2. Stage TWO - strength and resistance

• take a medium hiking trip, this time a bit more difficult, longer and a bit more harsh environment.
• put in your backpack ONLY the items that used in the phase one, at least once per day. All the rest, throw them away, are useless.
• put half of the food and drinks you had in the phase one - see how much you can resist with less and also start organizing better your energy
• take the shoes that were best for you
• less clothes too
• walk faster and longer, only to see how your body could adapt.
• this is the phase when you train your body and your mind - RESISTANCE

3. Stage THREE - enjoy

• now take the longer route and don't plan how many days you will made it. Just to enjoy it.
• take a tent or a hammock with you and sleep outside, under a clear sky.
• make your own schedule of walking. Some people walk better in the early morning, when the sun is not even arise. So you could have for example all afternoon available to relax in a nice place and just enjoy the rest of the daylight.
  Some other people are walking better under the hot sun, during the midday, some other are walking better afternoon until total darkness, but that could be more dangerous if the trails is not visible and well known.
• take notes about all you do, timing, eating, drinking, wearing etc So you will know better for your next trip.

If after these 3 stages you are still alive and willing to make more trips, then you became a strong man that nothing can stop him in his trips. NOTHING. It's all about discovering your own strength, endurance, skills, mind.
There's no common universal advice about this experience, is all about YOURSELF.

This picture was not taken in the 1st stage... was in the 6th stage after many hikings, walkings, failures, lessons etc

https://i.postimg.cc/Y97w8vxq/mt-summit-pleasure.jpg

But you feel like a king of the world once you've done it. In that moment there's no other mountain, trip, valley that can scary you, you control everything.

Response to a crisis in oil prices and production

Never create a new permanent department because of a temporary and manufactured crisis

Just as an experiment I search for this number hahaha

"The numerology energy represented by the number 184 resonates with a pragmatic and detailed focus. The focus generally is on things that are, or may become, essential in attaining current goals or for its well-being now and in the future. "

I read BTC... even I know it's not science.

https://www.zapread.com/i/9A5

Mullvad is not a VPN with “resources to buy infinite content creators on YouTube”. They're just not one of those VPNs. They're smallish, and have a long and verifiable track record of contributing actual code and other resources to privacy improving projects. That's a proof of work that is good evidence against them being some covert op. And of course, you can pay with Bitcoin and Monero (they do need to add Lightning support though; you can pay with Lightning via a third party).

Personally I use https://ivpn.net because they do support Lightning. Using it right now.

As for complaints about their email hosting... So what? I've never had to send Mullvad or iVPN an email. Their services work 99.9% of the time. It's ok to not be perfect; running email at their scale is a pain and I'm sure they have more important things to work on.

Frankly all the anti-VPN propaganda smells like a covert op in of itself. VPNs clearly make it more difficult for websites and governments to track you by hiding IP addresses in a large k-anonymity set. It's probably true that governments try to compromise VPNs, same as they do to ISPs. But they do that because VPNs work. Not because they don't.

pretty cool.
the incentives for participating in this are very good: your watchertower protect the nodes of your peers, and theirs protect your nodes. This relationship of mutual benefit can encourage people to use their watchertower to protect others "for free", in a colaborative manner, since everyone benefits.

I like the idea of watch swaps, but I have some concerns regarding privacy:

I just wonder about the possible drawbacks: since other nodes will be aware of your channels onchain (they need to be aware in order to monitor the blockchain in case of a forced-close attack), it will reveal your channels and lose privacy. I guess they probably also have to known the latest channel state in order to check if the forced-close used a previous channel state (whose balance benefits the attacker) or if the channel closed did match the latest balance of the channel. This is another thing of concern: the watchtower of other nodes have to know your node's balance on the channels you want them to monitor.

please correct me if im wrong. Id like to know the privacy implications of watch swaps